


Sing Out (and Roll for Charisma)

by speccygeekgrrl



Series: MST3K Alternate Universes [25]
Category: Mystery Science Theater 3000
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Awkward Flirting, Christmas, Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition, Gen, This is kind of dumb and silly but I had fun writing it, Tropemas
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-22
Updated: 2018-12-22
Packaged: 2019-09-24 21:13:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,880
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17108231
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/speccygeekgrrl/pseuds/speccygeekgrrl
Summary: There's just one last thing to do before school's out for the winter holiday.... if everyone will show up for it, that is. But once that's over, the nerds have epic plans, and Donna's been dipping into the Monster Manual to make things interesting.





	Sing Out (and Roll for Charisma)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SylaBub](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SylaBub/gifts).



> Another Tropemas challenge! I gave the list to SylaBub and told her to pick one, and she went for High School AU. I hope this works.

"This is stupid," Kinga said, crossing her arms and sneering when Max offered her a Santa hat. "I'm not participating in this."

"Then you're going to fail show choir for this quarter if you sit it out," Max said, and tucked the pom-pom of the hat into the crook of one of her arms. "You don't even have to sing, just mouth the words. No one will know the difference."

"Come on, Kinga, don't be a Scrooge," Synthia added, adjusting her own Santa hat until her hair was pulled back under it. "It's one little concert and then we're off for two weeks. Suck it up and act like you're not dying to be anywhere else for three songs."

"You're not even going anywhere for the holidays, are you?" Jonah asked, sitting on the edge of a desk and spinning a drumstick between his fingers idly. "You're not in a rush to get anywhere like I am." The four of them were in the corner of the choir room, hanging out and waiting until they'd be called in to perform at the school assembly that was all that stood between them and their winter vacations. They were less of a clique within the choir and more of the kids that didn't fit into the cliques, a ragtag bunch of nerds that had adopted the label of "Misfit Toys" with something like pride.

"Not all of us get to go to Hawaii every break," Kinga said in a tone of pure jealousy. "You're gonna come back all tan and healthy looking."

"And then I'm immediately going to catch a cold, because that's what happens every year," Jonah sighed. 

"I'd accept the cold as the price to be paid to spend two weeks in paradise," Max said, and tossed another hat at Jonah, who caught it on his drumstick. 

"Oh, please, you're such a baby when you get sick because it happens so rarely," Kinga taunted. "You start whining as soon as you get a stuffy nose."

"I can't help having a high constitution stat," Max said. 

"Your character sheet is a mess," Synthia said, and Max shrugged.

"That's why I try to play well balanced characters. Because I'm not balanced at all myself. Speaking of which, are we having our last session tonight, or are we on hold until next year?"

"I'm up for it if Donna's still willing to run it," Jonah said, and looked around. "Speaking of Donna... where is she? We're up in like fifteen minutes. Did anyone see her today?"

"She wasn't in bio," Kinga said. "Which meant I had to finish the dissection by myself. So I am going to break the game tonight by any means possible."

"You threaten to break the game every other session," Synthia pointed out. "She never should have let you roll an evil character. You totally fuck everything up for the rest of us."

"Yeah, like you don't laugh your ass off every time I kill an NPC instead of questioning them."

"I only laugh because of the look on Donna's face every time you murder a plot point she put too much time into developing."

"If she didn't want me to do it, she'd kill me off. I'm still kicking, so she can't be that mad at me yet."

"I thought I saw her in the hallway," Max said. "But that was this morning."

"She'd better be here," Jonah said. "Cause these songs are not gonna be great without our lead soprano." 

"Thanks, that makes me feel really valuable," Synthia said with a roll of her eyes. "What am I even here for?"

"There's nothing wrong with being a supporting member of a choir," Max said.

"You only say that because your voice is too quavery to solo," Kinga said, and Max pouted.

"I say it because it's true," he insisted. "I don't even want the spotlight like that. You know I hate being the focus of everyone's attention."

"Then how come you keep trying out for every tenor solo?" Max went red and pouted harder, and Jonah leaned over and tapped Kinga's head with his drumstick.

"Lay off him," he said. "Max has a great voice. Even if he's not a soloist, he does a lot of the work carrying the tenor section."

"Thank you," Max said, and he came over to lean on the desk Jonah was sitting on. "At least someone recognizes my adequacy."

"You're not adequate, you're vital," Jonah said.

"Oh, stop flirting with him," Kinga said.

"You can recognize compliments as flirting? Huh. I was positive you only recognized insults as flirting," Synthia said. "Either way, you both do it."

"Nobody's flirting with me," Max said, slightly despairing and almost as red as his hat. "Stop making things out to mean more than they do. Let me just... survive until graduation without things getting more weird than they already are, please?"

"Whatever you say, late bloomer," Kinga said, and she would have went on if she wasn't crashed into by a mess of curls and paint-stained hands.

"Sorry I'm late!" Donna said, grabbing Kinga by the shoulders before she went toppling over. 

"Where have you been all day?" Synthia asked.

"I've been in the art room trying to finish my final project," Donna said. 

"Did you make it?" Jonah asked.

"Well... more or less," Donna said. "The opossum turned out really good, the raccoon was okay, the pigeon is... pretty bad, I spent way too long on the throat and it still looks wrong. And I only just finished the crow now." She held up her hands, hastily scrubbed and incompletely washed, and then she stole Kinga's hat out of her hand and crushed her wild curls underneath it. "Is everyone ready for this?"

"Everyone but you," Kinga said, shrugging Donna off and stalking a few steps away. "Thanks for bothering to join us."

"As if I'd miss this," Donna scoffed. "Doing my best Mariah Carey impression is the only reason I'd come to this assembly anyways."

"Well, we're on in like five, you cut it close," Jonah said. He reached up to straighten Donna's hat and she beamed at him. "Are we gaming tonight?"

"Yes? Or I'm going to be really disappointed that I made gingerbread cookies and decorated them like your characters for no reason," Donna said. Max's eyes lit up.

"That sounds adorable," he said. 

"I also made a gingerbread version of what you're going to encounter tonight," Donna added, and Synthia snorted.

"It's a giant gingerbread tarrasque. It was nice knowing all of you, we'll all be rolling new characters next year."

"I wouldn't do that to you," Donna said, and then side-eyed Kinga. "Well, I wouldn't do that to most of you."

"Try it," Kinga said. "I dare you."

"Never say "I dare you" to your DM," Max said, covering Kinga's mouth with one hand before she could dig the hole any deeper. "I, for one, really like my character and don't want him to die because you're an evil idiot." Kinga knocked his hand away and turned into him with a finger raised almost right into his face.

A sharp whistle came from the front of the room, and they all looked over to find their choir director, Mr. Robinson, with his hands lifted. "Okay, everyone! Line up. We're gonna knock 'em dead." 

"A reprieve," Max muttered, and quickly walked away from Kinga to take his place at the front of the tenor section. Jonah snorted and put down the drumstick before finding his spot, rows behind Max at the very back of the choir, where he towered head and shoulders above everyone else in his section. Donna looked at Kinga with a smirk.

"Are you going to pull your own weight this time, or are you just going to pretend again?" she asked. 

Kinga flipped her off and stalked away, and Synthia shook her head and patted Donna on the shoulder.

"You shouldn't antagonize her," Synthia said.

"Oh, as if she's not the antagonist in every situation," Donna said. She fluffed her curls and pushed her glasses up. "Well? How do I look?"

"Like you just ran across the school from the art studio," Synthia said, and rolled up one of Donna's cuffs to hide the paint on it. "That's a little better. You're ready for the spotlight now."

"Thanks," Donna chirped, and the two of them took their spots at the fringe of the soprano section.

School assemblies were a pain in the ass, but at least being in choir meant none of them had to sit through the boring parts. The choir concert was the second to last part of the assembly, when the whole school was already restless and not paying attention, which was honestly the state of half the choir as well. Everyone just wanted to get out of there, even including the showboat soloists, who'd already had their chance to shine at the actual choir concert the week before and not the assembly-ending performance. The applause they garnered was only enthusiastic because the end of their last song meant everyone could get the hell out of school.

The five of them found each other at Synthia's car after going back to their lockers, and once they piled into the car Max dug through the front pocket of his backpack to produce a handful of miniatures that had been painted with meticulous detail.

"I finally got these done," he said, passing them around until each player was holding their character for the game, except for Synthia, who was driving. He gave her half-elf cleric to Donna instead. "We can use them tonight."

"Oh, wow, this is _great_ ," Kinga said, actually and honestly complimentary for a change. She held up her dark elf warlock and rotated it slowly. "You even got the sigils on her robe."

"Well, they're kind of important," Max said.

"You did a really good job," Jonah said from the front seat, inspecting his gold dragonborn paladin with a grin on his face. "Can I see yours?"

"Yeah," Max said, and handed up his halfling bard. "Don't laugh," he added, and Jonah shot him a puzzled look over his shoulder. 

"Why would I laugh? These are _badass_."

"They're also your Christmas presents, so I'm glad you like them."

"And what about me?" Donna asked, a hint of hurt in her voice. 

"This one is for you," Max said, and produced a black dragon figure that dwarfed the other minis, its hide slightly iridescent. "Since you love spitting acid at us so often." The sound Donna made as she took it was an untranscribable shriek of joy, and she leaned hard into Max.

"I love it! Oh, you don't even know what you just did to your party. You're not ready for a black dragon yet. We'll get there, though."

"Max! Don't encourage her to kill us harder," Kinga said, and Donna leaned around Max to mime her dragon spitting acid at Kinga's drow. 

"Don't worry, naughty children, the dragon won't kill you tonight. I've got something else entirely up my sleeve for tonight."

"You and your monsters," Synthia sighed, and Donna let out a chuckle that was almost entirely malevolent.

"Yes. Me and my monsters. This is going to be fun."


End file.
